If you read the online reviews, you might think eCab, the Vancouver taxi companies’ answer to Uber, is a befuddling, busted boondoggle of an app.

But ask cabbies, and they’ll tell you eCab meets demand for a modernized service with few complaints — and they have numbers to back that claim.

Carolyn Bauer, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Taxi Association, has kept careful watch over the app since it launched in September.

“I do the babysitting on this one,” Bauer said. Like others in Vancouver’s taxi business, Bauer is aware that a half-baked industry alternative won’t satiate simmering demand for popular on-demand car service Uber.

eCab was brought into the city to satisfy a large contingent of riders who would rather order a cab with an app than a phone call. eCab’s functions are similar to those of Uber, allowing users to choose vehicle options, pre-book rides, track the location of booked cars in real time, and pay by smartphone. For now it only works in Vancouver, but plans are afoot to extend the reach to cities across the region and into Victoria, Bauer said.

To date, 20,535 area users have downloaded eCab and just over half of those have linked their credit cards to their accounts, Bauer said. Vancouver’s taxi companies receive about 1,400 “calls” a week through the app.

As of Wednesday, Bauer said they have received just 72 pieces of customer feedback about the app, and not all of that has been negative.

“Inside door panels need to be cleaned,” read one complaint. “Driver wasn’t familiar with the app,” read another. “Great,” one person said simply.

Like Uber, which has earned glowing reviews from smartphone users, eCab is being used in cities around the world. But unlike Uber, it has garnered a barrage of negative reviews on the Apple and Google Play stores.

eCab for Apple devices had 52 reviews as of Feb. 10, and 40 of them gave just one star — the lowest ranking possible. While Android users were more generous with their praise, scoring the app an accumulated 3.2 stars out of five, users of both platforms had similar gripes.

One Vancouver cab customer said eCab would not load properly or notify users when a taxi was en route.

“Then you get a call from an angry taxi driver because (they’re) waiting outside,” wrote the reviewer, claiming he planned to delete the app.

Angelam324 offered a more troubling experience.

“I pre-ordered a cab and it picked up someone else and charged my card! This was only $10 but could have been a lot worse. Do not give them your credit card! No response from cab company or the app. Hoping Vancouver gets Uber soon.”

A common complaint is about a $5 fee that’s charged when customers don’t wait for the car they’ve ordered.

Kulwant Sahota, president of Yellow Cab, explained that policy: “If you booked a taxi, you should wait for a taxi that you booked. It’s a learning curve that everyone’s going through.”

Bauer and Sahota urged anyone with a wrongful charge to contact the company they rode with, adding refunds will be made promptly.

But the biggest problem with the app — and it’s the same issue sustaining the urgent pleas for Uber — is that no matter how good the interface is, there has to be enough cars on the road to satisfy demand.

Vancouver city councillor and early eCab adopter Geoff Meggs said the app is “very effective during the slow and mid-peak periods.”

“The interesting question is how well would it work if they were able to treat it as more of an Uber-type app with (adequate) supply.”

That was one of the issues raised by taxi industry representatives at a meeting with provincial ministers Wednesday. In what has become a regular event, Vancouver cabbies are again pressing Victoria for more licences.

Bauer said this time drivers are optimistic that the ongoing and frustrating stalemate will soon end.

Also on the agenda was a long look at how ride sharing could be done responsibly in B.C., said Transportation Minister Todd Stone, who met cabbies along with Attorney General Suzanne Anton and Peter Fassbender, the minister responsible for TransLink.

“Ride sharing and the broader sharing economy will be here in British Columbia at some point in the future,” Stone said in an interview. “We want to be sure that when that day comes it’s a result of a heck of a lot of engagement with existing stakeholders, including the taxi industry.”

But with taxi drivers keen to be a part of any development along those lines, expect the wait for true on-demand car service to be longer than the peak-period wait for a cab.